Straight to Plate
Chef Paul Gerard tends fresh ingredients behind his
NYC restaurant
by Maria Woodie
photographs courtesy of Exchange Alley
WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT
NEW YORK CITY, you might

picture ridiculously tall buildings, high-end fashion and irritating traffic. There isn’t much
room for lush gardens, unless you
find yourself on a stroll through
Central Park. However, nestled
behind Exchange Alley, a restaurant located in Lower Manhattan’s East Village, is a small but
robust edible garden. It’s full of
tantalizing flavor that appears
throughout the restaurant’s “Big
Apple meets the Big Easy” menu.
When plans to turn the small
space into outdoor seating failed
due to zoning regulations, coowner and chef Paul Gerard
immediately decided to create
an edible garden. Although he
lacked gardening experience, he
quickly learned that he had a natural green thumb. With the help
of his good friend and fellow chef
Sisha Ortuzar of Riverpark (the
restaurant with the largest farm
within in NYC limits), he was
able to start a thriving 25-by-50foot garden. He grows vegetables
and herbs in planters made from
recycled shipping pallets, win-

dows and doors, milk crates and
more.
Yet Gerard swiftly discovered that quantity doesn’t always mean quality. “Last year
I [planted] a huge variety of
okra, grapes, squash, tomatillos, chilies, herbs, tomatoes and
lettuces,” he recalls. “It was too
much. I didn’t get a big enough
yield and I couldn’t sustain even
a daily special.” So in 2013, the
Brooklyn native narrowed it
down to different varieties of
herbs, tomatoes and chilies,
with a little extra room for some
arugula, red frill mustard and
microgreens, and even some
kale and rainbow chard for a
few fall-harvested selections.
“I planted kale last year and it
was still coming up in February,” he says. “It’s really nice to
look out the back doors, past the
snow-covered ground, and see
me clipping some greens you’re
about to eat.”
The small garden isn’t just
full of plants, however. Gerard
also has a knack for art, transforming old sinks, timeworn
tubs and even toys into planters.

28 |

GREAT GARDENS

He also added a New Orleans–
style courtyard filled with antique gas cans, old searchlights,
mannequins and old watering
cans and sprinklers for quirky
appeal. (He worked in New Orleans for 15 years, and while his
food isn’t strictly of that city, it
includes aspects of its cuisines.)
Since opening in 2012, Exchange Alley has been off to
a successful start, offering a
unique menu filled with the
freshest ingredients around.
“I utilize everything I have,”
explains Gerard. “I am very
herb heavy in my food. I love
the freshness of herbs, and being that they are usually very
expensive, it’s great to have an
abundance on hand. This isn’t
even ‘farm to table’; it’s ‘straight
to the plate.’ It’s picked, washed
and served. Nothing is wasted,
and everything is day-of.”
Read the transcript of Maria’s interview with Paul Gerard—including his strategy for
dealing with the city’s tomatoloving squirrels. Exchange Alley
is located at 424 East 9th Street,
NYC.